5. CONCLUSIONES
5.4 Futuras líneas de investigación
The idea of „female acculturation‟ also seems to be the key to understanding Alcman‟s
partheneia, albeit an earlier stage of acculturation. The Louvre Partheneion has, however, been previously interpreted as an epithalamium, and I agree with Contiades-Tsitsoni that it should not be seen as such192– nor should fr. 3. Griffiths argued, on the basis of similarities with Theocritus 18, that fr. 1 is an epithalamium on which the Epithalamium for Helen was dependent. Arguing from the loss of one girl from their group (a)nt[i\ d' e(/ndeka / pai/dwn
dek, 98-99), two possibly meta-epithalamic myths of marital malpractice (the Hippocoontids
191
Alexiou (1974) 125.
192
and the Giants), and the concern of the chorus immediately after this with Agido (a)ei/dw /
'Agidw=j to\ fw=j, 39-40; light being an all-pervading motif of epithalamia), he suggests that: „the Partheneion is actually a diegertikon sung by ten girls to the newly-wed Agido at the break of day‟.193
Gentili goes even further – he argued for a parallel to a Sapphic thiasos that could involve genuinely matrimonial homoerotic relationships (based on the use of
su/ndugo(j) in fr. 213.3 V), and that the Partheneion constituted a homoerotic epithalamium
for Agido and Hagesichora:
It moves from agonistic language to reference to precious objects as a means of defeating a rival for the affection of a beloved, to resigned withdrawal from combat, and – finally – to the attainment of “peace” when one of their number accedes to the amorous desires of another at the moment of ritual marriage. First comes the amorous struggle, a part of the girls‟ final attempt to separate Agido from Hagesichora, then the idea that they are now beyond being helped by any precious object, or even by their own beauty.194
Since Calame, however, it has been generally agreed that partheneia are part of a pre-marital initiation rite signifying the end of childhood and the entrance to marriageable virginity.195 Debates continue, though, as to exactly what rite is signified, and under the auspices of which
goddess. As with our „epithalamial‟ fragments of Sappho, there are no generic signifiers of
193 Griffiths (1970) 29; see Ch.6, p.241-42. 194 Gentili (1988) 76. 195
I.e., being a young woman eligible for marriage. Calame (1997) 258-63; compare Bowra (1934) who argued that the occasion of the Partheneion was a pannuchis ritual for Helen and Dionysus; Hamilton (1989) who
compared the activities represented in this fragment with those on Attic „Brauronian‟ krateriskoi to conclude
that both were female group rituals, although he does not specify an exact context apart from a private, female rite; Robbins (1991) who again does not specify an exact occasion, but reads the song as a competition between the chorus, and Agido and Hagesichora, to greet the Dawn-goddess; Hallett (1996), agreeing with Griffiths; and Cyrino (2004) who argues for a premarital initiation rite presided over by Aphrodite.
marriage: no numphê, no gambros, and no gamos/hymenaios. The focus is on the relationship between the girls and, in this case, we cannot even securely identify a departure. Alcman fr. 4A does, however, refer to a marriage and has been analysed by Contiades-Tsitsoni as an epithalamium.196 This poem is similar in tone and in its concentration on female activity to frr. 1 and 3. In the following section, I aim to place the partheneion in relation to the epithalamium within a schema of female initiation.
Fr. 1 begins with a lacunose rendering of a myth relating a struggle between the sons of Tyndareus and their cousins, the sons of Hippocoon. Mythical narratives form part of a
number of epithalamia, and these „meta-epithalamia‟ often reflect or comment on the action
of the wedding being performed.197 A moralising gnomê suggests that the opening myth has erotic overtones, and therefore may be seen in a nuptial context: [mh/ . . . a)nq]rw/pwn e)j w)rano\n poth/sqw / [mhde\ ph]rh/tw gamh=n ta\n 'Afrodi/tan...[ ]h? pai/da Po/rkw (16-19). Page identified two possible erotic references: Clement of Alexandria‟s
reference to this poem is followed by the statement that Euphorion, in his Thrax, referred to the sons of Hippocoon as a)ntimnhsth=rej of the sons of Tyndareus, and Plutarch preserves a version of the myth in which Enarsphorus (v.3) attempted to rape Helen in her youth.198 No details of the exact nature of the offence are given in the extant poem, but it is possible that a sexual transgression against the divine was involved, and was punished by the Tyndarids (Polydeuces is mentioned in v.1). The rape of Helen would be an appropriate mythical subject given her divine aspect in Sparta, often related to marriage.199 Finally, if Helen is identifiable with one of the goddesses mentioned in the song (or even with Hagesichora, as
196
Contiades-Tsitsoni (1990) 50-54. I am not convinced by her analysis – the image of women praying to achieve marriage (tele/sai ga/mon, 15) suggests that a wedding may happen in the future, but is not
necessarily the occasion of the present song.
197
Cf. esp. Ar. Av. 1731-42 (e)n toi%=d' u(menai/%), Eur. IA 1036-98 (ti/n' a)/r' (Ume/naioj e)/stasen i)axa/n...;).
198
Page (1951) 32, cf. Clem. Alex. Schol. Protr. 27.11, Plut. Thes. 31.
199
Pausanias speaks of a sanctuary of Helen at the Plane-Trees in Sparta (3.15.3.1, cf. Theoc. 18.43-48), and she is said to be buried at a temple of Menelaus in Therapnae (3.19.9.2-4).
Griffiths suggests),200 then the Partheneion takes on the aspect of a cult hymn to her, in which a transgression, its punishment, and resolution are narrated, and the chorus state their intention to follow the pious course:
e)/sti tij qiw=n ti/sij.
o(\ d' o)/lbioj, o(/stij eu)/frwn a)me/ran [di]aple/kei a)/klautoj!201
Is such a myth appropriate to an epithalamium, however? In the preceding section, I discussed the problems of narrating one rape of Helen in the context of a wedding song. Here another rape may be represented, which, though not adulterous, seems nevertheless to be
transgressive. If the contest between Tyndareus‟ sons and their rival suitors is the subject of
the myth, its presentation is no less problematic – the death-count listed at the beginning of the fragment is hardly propitious for a wedding,202 whose aim is the re-creation of life. The epithalamium does not shy away from problematic narratives: we have myths of Hector and Andromache, Zeus and Hera, Peleus and Thetis, Helen and Menelaus, and Menander Rhetor recommends more, especially unions of the hyper-sexual Heracles,203 but these are idealised, and represent the joyous celebration of the marriages themselves and the blessings conferred upon the couples as a result. The foreshadowing is a subtle undertone, contributing irony or uncomfortable discordance to the meaning of the wedding song. We do not have extant meta-
200
Griffiths (1970) 22-26.
201
Alcm. fr. 1.36-39. o)/lbioj here should not necessarily be taken as nuptial makarismos, as it is also
appropriate to gnomai in the context of hymns to the gods, cf. H.H.Dem. 486.
202
Alcm. fr. 1.1-12.
203
Sappho fr. 44 V, Ar. Av. 1730-40, possibly Sappho fr. 141 V, Eur. IA. 1036-79, Theoc. 18, Men. Rhet. 402.10-20, 406.24-28, 409.2-8; Ch.8, pp.309-10.
epithalamia depicting outright rape. Those that do survive present images of social cohesion, even if this means that they present versions of myths which contradict well-known traditions of force.204
As in our Sapphic songs and many extant epithalamia, praise is given to female figures. But the Partheneion is more akin to fr. 96 V, in which two women are singled out for
encomia. Agido, as described above, is represented with „light‟ imagery, and compared to the
sun: ' w(/t' a)/lion (41), Immediately, however, the chorus notes that their leader Hagesichora forbids them either to praise or to blame Agido (43-45), and they proceed to describe her pre-eminence:
dokei= ga\r h)/men au)ta\ e)kpreph\j tw\j w(/per ai)/ tij e)n botoi=j sta/seien i(/ppon
pago\n a)eqlofo/ron kanaxa/poda tw=n u(popetridi/wn o)nei/rwn.205
Hagesichora is e)kpreph\j. By the same logic that identifies Helen (in both fr. 16 V and
Theocritus 18), the Lydian woman, Nausicaa, and Europa as bride-figures, this outstanding beauty should mean that if a wedding is intended, Hagesichora, not Agido, is its bride.206 Like a bride, she is compared to a horse: o( me\n ke/lhj / 'Enhtiko/j (50-51). But so is Agido, who offers competition (perhaps literally racing her) for this pre-eminence:
204
See esp. Ch. 4, pp.192-93 on the third stasimon of IA.
205
Alcm. fr. 1.43-49.
206
a( de\ deute/ra ped' 'Agidw\ to\ ei=doj i(/ppoj 'Ibhnw=i Kolacai=oj dramh/tai!207
Neither girl, however, seems to be getting married. What the fragment does show them doing is performing a religious observance: (Aghsix[o/]r[a]... 'Agidoi= . . . .arme/nei /
qwsth/r[ia/ t'] a(/m' e)painei (79-81). Hesychius‟ gloss of e(orth/ for qwsth/ria suggests a
religious, rather than marital, ritual.208 Prayers to the gods are mentioned in a nuptial context in Alcman fr. 4A,209 and could indicate a pre-nuptial sacrifice, the proteleia. But unless Agido and Hagesichora are undergoing a double (or homosexual, as Gentili suggests)
marriage, this does not adequately explain the prominence of both in the „festival‟, the role of
the chorus as a whole in making a dedication,210 or its desire, rather than the „bride‟s‟, to please the goddess Aotis.211 Fr. 4A offers a scenario of multiple female participants performing prayers for the accomplishment of marriage, described as gunaici\ kai\
a)ndra/[si / fi/lt]ata (16-17); perhaps a similar scenario, and similar telos, is envisioned
for the maidens who, through the agency of Hagesichora, [i)r]h/naj e)rat[a=]j e)pe/ban (1.91). Though not yet married, their participation in the rite looks forward to that occasion.
Griffiths‟ problem of a)nt[i\ d' e(/ndeka / pai/dwn dek still remains, although I do not believe it can be answered as simply as he suggests: „earlier in the season there had been eleven in the choir, now with the bride‟s departure there are only ten left‟.212
Of those ten, he imagines Agido to be the bride and Hagesichora to be a benevolent daimon, which raises 207 Alcm. fr. 1.58-59. 208 Hesych. s.v. qwsth/ria. 209
Alcm. fr. 4A.14-15: tai\ d' o(/te dh\ potamw=i kallirro/wi / a)ra/sant' e)rato\n tele/sai ga/mon, cf.
Ar. Pax. 1328.
210
Alcm. fr. 1.61: o)rqri/ai fa/roj feroi/saij. 211
Alcm. fr. 1.88-89: e)gw\[n] de\ ta=i me\n 'Aw/ti ma/lista / Fanda/nhn e)rw=. 212
more problems. Eleven names appear in the fragment: Agido, Hagesichora, Nanno, Areta, Thalycis, Cleêsithêra, Aenesimbrota, Astaphis, Philylla, Damareta and Vianthemis. If Aenesimbrota is, as Page suggested, some kind of choral mistress and not to be included within this group,213 that leaves the names of eight choreutai, a bride and a goddess. Why then leave two girls unnamed? Our Sapphic fragments refer to the bride only as numphê, and to the names of the epithalamial chorus not at all.
Two other interpretations are possible: that the eleven names refer to the e(/ndeka, from which Aenesimbrota is to be excluded. Perhaps she was once part of the chorus, or involved with its production, but no longer. The dek would then refer to the other girls,
including Agido and Hagesichora, some of whose attention you would go to Aenesimbrota‟s
to attract.214 Alternatively, Aenesimbrota is herself a chorus member, and simply a friend of Astaphis, Philylla, Damareta and Vianthemis at whose house these girls could be found. She is part of the dek, and the eleventh girl is Hagesichora, the chorêgos, who is outstanding in every other way, is constantly singled out for attention, and cannot be included among the paides of the chorus. She may be a bride, but most likely her pre-eminence indicates her status as a marriageable parthenos, in the context of a ritual that prepares for marriage and childbirth but does not necessarily signify it.
Whether a girl has departed for marriage or is about to do so is impossible to tell from
the contents which, like three of Sappho‟s „epithalamial‟ songs, do not indicate the presence
of a bridegroom that would make a wedding ceremony a more plausible interpretation. The girls speak of themselves as neanides, parthenoi and paides – the same designation is given
to Astymeloisa, the subject of Alcman‟s third partheneion.215
Both chorus and subject are unmarried maidens, yet are highly sexualised: the girls are represented as horses, given
213
Page (1951) 65-66.
214
Alcm. fr. 1.73: ou)d' e)j Ai)nhsimbr[o/]taj e)nqoi=sa fasei=j...
215
purple clothing and luxurious ornaments,216 and are described in erotic terms like those of the
young women in Sappho‟s „epithalamial‟ songs: to\ fw=j, e)kpreph\j, xai/ta xruso\j, a)rgu/rion pro/swpon, to\ ei=doj, qieidhj, e)rata/, e)pime/rwi.217
If Sourvinou-Inwood was correct in stating that the „bears‟ of the Athenian arkteia shed the krokotos, another luxurious garment denoting femininity, at the Brauronia on completion of their initiation,218 then a parallel may be drawn between partheneia and the arkteia, whose climax she imagined as taking place at the five-yearly Brauronia.219
In both rites, a religious festival provides the occasion for the reintegration ritual of a tribal initiation, during which a representative group of the cohort of about-to-be- marriageable-parthenoi (pre-pubescent to menarche) have taken part in a series of ritual activities aimed at their socialisation and acculturation to their adult roles. By demonstrating controlled sexualisation, if not sexuality, during their reintegration rites, they indicate that they have internalised sexual and gender norms and their mythological aitia, and thus are ready to assume those roles. In a ritual under the auspices of the civic religion which aims at male control of their sexuality, they are presented to society as parthenoi, desirable brides (in
this respect the rite could be termed one of „social puberty‟ along the lines defined by Van
Gennep).220 There will then follow a period of maturation (menarche to marriage) during which the parthenos will take place in other „civilising‟ rituals and activities, such as those described in the section on Sappho above, before she is fully initiated by marriage.
This period, and the ages at which it takes place, varies according to social context: Hesiod says h( de\ gunh\ te/tor' h(bw/oi, pe/mpt% de\ gamoi=to,221 and a marital age of fifteen (supposing the completion of the arkteia at ten at the latest) is certainly usual for 216 Alcm. fr. 1.64-69. 217 Alcm. fr. 1.40, 46, 51-54, 55, 58, 71, 76, 101. 218 Sourvinou-Inwood (1988) 127-34. 219 Sourvinou-Inwood (1988) 21. 220
Sourvinou-Inwood (1988) 112, cf. Van Gennep (1960) 65-70.
221
Athens. In Sparta, Plutarch attests that girls married when they were a)mazou/saj kai\
pepei/rouj,222
and therefore perhaps were initiated later – a greater seniority for the girls of
the Partheneion might account for Griffiths‟ interpretation of the poem as an epithalamium. We cannot be certain of the „initiatory‟ and marital ages of the girls on Lesbos – Sappho‟s „epithalamial‟ songs display a similar degree of sexual self-awareness to the Partheneion, but
we must remember that these were composed by Sappho and Alcman, who were probably not the same age as their choreutai, and thus might give a distorted poetic representation of this acculturation.
We may thus note a series of transformations undergone by Greek women in the passage to adulthood: from asexual childhood to marriageability, designated by the arkteia at Athens and partheneia at Sparta; an intermediate period between physical maturation and marriage in which other ritual activities (such as being a kanephoros, or a racing parthenos at Elis),223 including perhaps other maiden choruses, were performed and the female homoerotic sentiments expressed in the partheneion found expression; and the final transition to adulthood represented by heterosexual marriage and the wedding song. Just as marriage itself was a composite and often extended process, so too was the progression to womanhood culminating in marriage and childbirth. Taken together, they constitute the process of initiation for a Greek woman.
Maturation rites signify separation from childhood, intermediary rituals are part of the liminal period of partheneia (virginity), and marriage rites begin the process of reintegration into a fully adult role. Van Gennep first noted that transitions may be expanded into tripartite sub-structures,224 and this seems to be the case for female initiation. Sourvinou-Inwood saw 222 Plut. Lyc. 15.3.2-3. 223 See p.56, n.189. 224
Van Gennep (1960) 11. He gives the example of betrothal, a liminal period between adolescence and
marriage, but notes that „the passage from adolescence to betrothal itself involves a special series of rites of
the rites at the beginning and end of this process (maturation and marriage) as enclosing and symbolically regulating the potentially dangerous female sexuality that developed in the intermediary period.225 As we have seen, participation in ritual during this period could also facilitate female acculturation, and offer a socially-sanctioned vehicle for the expression of sexuality in the poetry of this period. The partheneion and the epithalamium stand at opposite ends of this liminal period, and should not be conflated.226 Their shared language and topoi, however, suggest a shared ideology to these rites: both were part of an ongoing transition within which young girls were transformed into women, productive members of the adult community.227